The Public Health Law Center (the “Center”) is an awardee of the Maternal Child Health Policy Innovation Program (MCH PIP) which is overseen by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). With this award, PHLC will conduct a 3-year project to build the capacity of state and local health officials to develop and implement innovative policies to improve nutrition security for maternal child health (MCH) populations.
We are creating a 30-month national learning community (LC), running approximately from June 2025 through August 2027, made up of 5-10 teams of state and local health departments, community members, and people with lived experience.
The LC will focus on building the capacity of its members to develop and implement innovative state and local policy approaches to improve health among maternal child health populations, focusing on policies to improve access to affordable and nutritious food for everyone. The Center will provide tailored legal technical assistance (TA) to LC members to ensure the policy initiatives are comprehensive, feasible, and sustainable. Policymaking experience is not required.
Applications open on April 16th and close on May 16th. The application will likely take around 10-15 minutes to complete.
For any questions or comments, please email Garin Strobl: Garin.Strobl@mitchellhamline.edu
- Eligibility Criteria
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We are looking for state and local health officials and community partners from 5-10 states to convene into cross-sector geographic teams. Each team will include at least one community member with relevant lived experience who may also be part of a state or local coalition organized to address nutrition security or MCH challenges within the LC team’s jurisdiction(s).
You may be a good fit if:
- You are a state or local health department employee or work at a similar government agency (particularly if your work engages in food or economic security for MCH populations or lactation protections).
- You are currently participating, or were recently participating, in a food or cash assistance program such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
- You are a member of a community-based group whose work includes increasing food and nutrition access (this could include a food council, and anti-hunger coalition, breastfeeding coalition, or other similar community group).
Anyone joining the LC on behalf of their agency, department, or coalition, would require approval from their organizational leadership.
- What will you give?
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Participants will:
- Attend monthly or bi-monthly one-on-one and small group virtual meetings.
- Attend an annual virtual and in-person meeting. (Travel expenses to the in-person meeting will be covered by PHLC, including airfare, accommodations, and food).
- Bring an enthusiastic and collaborative spirit to peer-learning opportunities and support a sense of shared and unified vision for goals within each LC team.
- What will you get?
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Participants will:
- Receive direct legal TA including legal research, impact/feasibility and community engagement tools, drafting of educational talking points, policy drafting and/or refinement, and assistance navigating policymaking challenges such as implementation and sustainability.
- Participate in peer learning and sharing opportunities, networking, and collaborative efforts with partners in your state/region.
- Learn from guest speakers who are experts in the field of maternal child health and/or nutrition security.
- Access new TA resources on maternal child health, nutrition security, policy making, and other emerging issues identified by the collaborative.
- Deepen collaboration with other MCH PIP awardees to amplify and support sustainability of capacity across stakeholder groups.
This is an unfunded opportunity. However, stipends are available for members currently enrolled in a food or cash assistance program to compensate for time and work.